


Compartments

by FrivolousSuits



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Murder, Possibly Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 06:46:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11800641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrivolousSuits/pseuds/FrivolousSuits
Summary: “Starting on January 1st, Pearson Specter Litt will strengthen its commitment to social responsibility by valuing pro bono work and commercial work equally when determining advancement and by allowing attorneys to count an unlimited number of their pro bono hours towards billable hours targets.”





	Compartments

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Suits 100's 77th prompt: “Gallo, being locked away now for good and having nothing to lose, orders a hit on Harvey.”
> 
> Ignores everything after S07E04.

_Seventeen_  
“Starting on January 1st, Pearson Specter Litt will strengthen its commitment to social responsibility by valuing pro bono work and commercial work equally when determining advancement and by allowing attorneys to count an unlimited number of their pro bono hours towards billable hours targets.”

 _One_  
Working in the DA’s office teaches you how to repress your impulse to care about others’ suffering– part of a well-documented phenomenon known as compassion fatigue– and how to kill without getting caught.

 _Two_  
After leaving Cameron, Harvey draws upon the valuable trial experience he gained as an ADA, but his thorough loss of innocence and of trust in the American justice system proves just as profitable in corporate law.

 _Three_  
Harvey insistently doesn’t think about Frank Gallo, rotting away in solitary confinement after Mike gets out, withering into a raging, fearful id of a man.

 _Four_  
(Maybe someone really should guard the damn guards themselves, seeing that they’re how Gallo sneaks the order out, but Harvey will settle for finding a separate case against them and personally suing them out of house and home.)

 _Five_  
On some intellectual level Harvey knows there are 146 other options, but he can’t summon any of them up when he needs them, now as he’s staring down the barrel of a hitman’s gun.

 _Six_  
One _crack_ , and Harvey’s life is over.

 _Seven_  
For some reason, Mike materializes in front of him, and it’s Mike who falls bleeding when the bullet hits, and it’s Mike who’s choking and gasping and fading–

 _Eight_  
It’s always Mike, isn’t it?

 _Nine_  
In the aftermath, through the funeral and the insufficient investigation and the bungled case and unsatisfying conviction, Harvey rams through the stages of grief– denial, anger, depression, anger, acceptance, anger, anger, anger …

 _Ten_  
Harvey tries bargaining eventually, arriving at a settlement not with God but with the only higher power he’s ever believed in: “Unlimited hours for you, one for me.”

 _Eleven_  
And so Harvey sits down to a poker game that will never end, facing the fact that he can never open himself to therapists or friends or family again, and unable to give a damn.

 _Twelve_  
He doesn’t correct Donna when she mistakes his silent scheming for mourning, even admitting that in some ways she’s right on the money.

 _Thirteen_  
Glock 17s– favorites of law enforcement– hold 17 cartridges in their magazines, 17 metal compartments containing a bullet and propellant and the power to destroy a life, but this gun is illegally obtained and has fifteen more rounds than turn out to be strictly necessary.

 _Fourteen_  
Though he lays his plans for years, waiting patiently until the true culprit is released from prison, the execution takes only one hour, and with a mere two bullets Harvey cleanly closes the Gallo case.

 _Fifteen_  
Looking out his apartment window at half-past two, Harvey spots a sliver of light from the reflection of a skinny tie, and he whips around to find blue eyes and helmet hair and Mike _bellowing_ at him, because how dare he thus pervert justice and all they worked for, and Harvey’s roaring that if he’s so upset about it he’d better come back and fight Harvey, come back and convict Harvey, come back, come back, but the wisp just ups and leaves and abandons Harvey to his solitary confinement.

 _Sixteen_  
In the morning, Harvey rises dry-eyed, arms himself with nothing but a three-piece suit and a tried-and-true smirk, and goes out to practice the law.


End file.
